The Emergence of Noopolitik: Toward An American Information Strategy

Arquilla, John; Ronfeldt, David

doi:10.7249/mr1033

Cited by 104 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…When such communications are impeded, agency loss is inevitable as lower-level members are compelled to act 53. See Arquilla and Ronfeldt 1999;Gunaranta 2002;Hoffman 2003;Joosse 2007;Greenberg, Wechsler, and Wolosky 2002;and Kaplan 1997. 54. See Lake and McCubbins 2006;andGould 2003.…”

Section: Terrorism As a Principal-agent Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining Terrorism: Leadership Deficits and Militant Group Tactics

Abrahms¹,

Potter²

2015

Int Org

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Certain types of militant groups—those suffering from leadership deficits—are more likely to attack civilians. Their leadership deficits exacerbate the principal-agent problem between leaders and foot soldiers, who have stronger incentives to harm civilians. We establish the validity of this proposition with a tripartite research strategy that balances generalizability and identification. First, we demonstrate in a sample of militant organizations operating in the Middle East and North Africa that those lacking centralized leadership are prone to targeting civilians. Second, we show that when the leaderships of militant groups are degraded from drone strikes in the Afghanistan-Pakistan tribal regions, the selectivity of organizational violence plummets. Third, we elucidate the mechanism with a detailed case study of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Palestinian group that turned to terrorism during the Second Intifada because pressure on leadership allowed low-level members to act on their preexisting incentives to attack civilians. These findings indicate that a lack of principal control is an important, underappreciated cause of militant group violence against civilians.

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Section: Terrorism As a Principal-agent Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining Terrorism: Leadership Deficits and Militant Group Tactics

Abrahms¹,

Potter²

2015

Int Org

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“…It focuses on the extent to which information has been employed as a disruptive weapon, rather than as a tool used for productive purposes as it is more usually understood in organization theory. Notions of 'information warfare' have become a fertile area for theorizing in computer studies (Denning, 1999) and military strategy (Arquilla andRonfeldt, 1997a, 2001;Knott, 2007;Libicki, 2007), and there is also an emerging literature developing within the social sciences (Terranova, 2004(Terranova, , 2007Virilio, 2000Virilio, , 2002. In both military and social conflicts, communication and information systems are increasing the ability of small groups and individuals to confront much larger entities through a range of guerrilla tactics, be they companies, militaries or governments (Arquilla and Ronfeldt, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information Warfare and New Organizational Landscapes: An Inquiry into the ExxonMobil–Greenpeace Dispute over Climate Change

MacKay¹,

Munro

2012

Organization Studies

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A defining characteristic of the emergence of new organizational landscapes is that information is not just being used as a tool by organizations, as it is more usually understood, but also as a weapon in a 'war of position'. As organizations seek to influence public perception over such emotive issues as climate change, conflict at the ideational level can give rise to information warfare campaigns. This concerns the creation and deployment of often ideologically-infused ideas through information networks to promote an organization's interests over those of its adversaries. In this article, we analyse the ways in which ExxonMobil and Greenpeace employ distinctive informational tactics against a range of diverse targets in their dispute over the climate change debate. The purpose of this article is to advance the neo-Gramscian perspective on social movement organizations as a framework for understanding such behaviour. We argue that information warfare is likely to become common as corporations and non-governmental organizations are increasingly sensitive to their informational environment as a source of both opportunity and possible conflict.

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“…Internet insurgents thus benefit from a system which both blurs the lines between combatants and noncombatants and helps to build nonstate identity. Thus, realists see cyberspace as providing an advantage to those engaged in “irregular modes of conflict, including terror, crime, and military social activism” (Arquilla and Ronfeldt 1996, 1999).…”

Section: “Netizens” Citizens and Trolls: The Evolution And Devolutimentioning

confidence: 99%

From Global Village to Virtual Battlespace: The Colonizing of the Internet and the Extension of Realpolitik

Manjikian

2010

International Studies Quarterly

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From the earliest years of the Internet's creation, cyberspace has been distinguished from other types of political space because of three unique qualities: (i) its ability to mobilize users, particularly ''outsiders'' including those who have not been easily included in political systems using conventional means; (ii) its ability to quickly provide large quantities of information of uncertain or unregulated quality; and (iii) its ability to shrink distances between users, in some sense rendering conventional physical geography irrelevant. This paper presents three lenses for interpreting the significance of these developments: utopian, liberal, and realist. Evolving doctrines of cyberwarfare as put forth by China, Russia, and the United States in particular stress the ways in which cyberspace presents a unique security threat which may present greater advantages to nonstate actors engaged in unconventional warfare. Differing economic, political, and security policies derive from each lens.

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The Emergence of Noopolitik: Toward An American Information Strategy

Cited by 104 publications

References 32 publications

Explaining Terrorism: Leadership Deficits and Militant Group Tactics

Explaining Terrorism: Leadership Deficits and Militant Group Tactics

Information Warfare and New Organizational Landscapes: An Inquiry into the ExxonMobil–Greenpeace Dispute over Climate Change

From Global Village to Virtual Battlespace: The Colonizing of the Internet and the Extension of Realpolitik

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